September 2025

I thank the hon. Lady for raising the issues around fair funding. I know this is a really important matter for a number of colleagues. She will be aware that the Deputy Prime Minister has ensured a record local government funding settlement, but the hon. Lady is absolutely right: the devil is in the detail and we need to ensure that funding follows need. I will certainly arrange for her to have a meeting with the Minister.

I am sorry to hear about the cases in the hon. Lady’s constituency. I am sure the issues will be familiar to other hon. Members, especially those representing constituencies in Scotland. I am happy to facilitate a response from the Minister, so that we can make sure that the necessary steps are in place to alleviate the situation.

Libraries are vital to our communities and high streets, and they provide people with access to knowledge and information, as they have done in decades gone by and will do in decades in the future. I support all my hon. Friend’s efforts to support Lindley library in his constituency.

I am happy to help facilitate a conversation with the relevant Minister about trout farming.

I am sorry to hear that the SL1 route was scrapped under the previous Government. My hon. Friend makes a very strong case for our buses Bill and all the actions that we are taking to ensure that buses serve their local community, and are affordable and reliable. When such powers are used, we see a massive increase in the use of buses.

As ever, the hon. Gentleman is a strong advocate for jobs and businesses in his constituency. He knows that this Government are committed to new nuclear power and to the most ambitious nuclear programme in a generation. I am really sorry to hear that the SNP Government are, as ever, likely to set themselves against this new investment and against new job opportunities in Scotland. Frankly, that is a pattern that we are seeing time after time, and I join him in calling on them to look again.

As someone who follows my hon. Friend on social media, I know that he has had a very busy recess, as have many colleagues; I have looked on jealously at many of the visits that people have been doing over the summer recess. I join him in congratulating the Royal Air Forces Association branch in his constituency on all that it does.

As ever, the right hon. Gentleman is a very big presence with his short question. He raises a topic that I know we all get many emails and complaints about. The Secretary of State for Transport has given an update to the House on these issues, and we are delivering 10,000 additional driving tests. The right hon. Gentleman raises an important issue about how bots and others are using technology to secure those tests, and I will ensure that he gets a full response.

That was my hon. Friend’s first business question! I welcome him to the delights of business questions. They are normally followed by a compliment to me and an invitation to the constituency—I was waiting for that before I got up to reply. I will certainly join my hon. Friend in thanking Tina, Nathan and all those who provided such wonderful holiday facilities for children.

As ever, alongside legislation we publish all the necessary documents, including the costings, which we have been transparent about. I gently say to the right hon. Gentleman that before the election his Government embarked on 11 rounds of negotiations; they knew that the Government needed to resolve this issue in order to protect our defence and security for generations to come. I am pleased that we have managed to get that deal across the line.

That is how it is done! My hon. Friend was once the master of Doncaster airport, and he is now the master of business question puns. I absolutely join him in wishing the team the best of luck.

As ever, my hon. Friend raises important activities happening in his constituency. He is a powerful advocate for community empowerment in his constituency. I join him in thanking those behind such initiatives, which we will have ample opportunity to discuss in the coming months.

This is not the first time that we have heard at business questions about the postcode lottery that remains when it comes to cancer care, particularly children’s cancer care. I thank the hon. Lady for raising that issue, and I will raise it with the Secretary of State. We have announced extra funding and will publish the national cancer plan later this year, and I will ensure that the Secretary of State comes to the House to update us.

Members ask, “Where are they?” I think Reform Members are busy doing each other’s ironing— I do not know whether people have seen that. My hon. Friend is absolutely right. For a Member of Parliament who claims to be acting in the British interest to go to another country to suggest that tariffs on this country are increased and that steps are taken to reduce job opportunities here is not just unpatriotic, but anti-British.

I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising that issue. We have seen Members of this House from the Reform party going around the world savaging our rights to free speech in this country, yet the councils they run are not prepared to answer questions on free speech. They are blocking local newspapers from scrutinising their work and, as the hon. Gentleman says, they are not opening themselves up to freedom of information requests. I will ensure he gets a ministerial response.

The Parkrun and junior Parkrun initiatives are fantastic at engaging people in daily activity to keep them healthy and at bringing them together, tackling other issues such as loneliness. I join my hon. Friend in thanking all the organisers for their involvement.

I am not sure whether any of the couples I mentioned at the beginning of this questions session got married in Gretna Green—maybe they can declare it if they did—but we are all of course very familiar with it as the iconic place for weddings in this country. The right hon. Gentleman makes an important point about simplifying some of the bureaucracy and making sure we remember what marriage is all about. I will get in touch with the relevant Minister on his behalf and see what we can do.

My hon. Friend is a passionate and long-standing campaigner around those issues, and she has raised them with me many times. I thank her for all the work she does raising the issues around suicide and suicide prevention. It is often an uncomfortable and difficult issue to talk about, and she leads from the front in making sure that people feel that they can do so. I certainly join her in encouraging Members to participate.

I certainly join the hon. Member in congratulating and thanking the parents of Charlie—Harrison and Ellie—for their phenomenal fundraising efforts. Rare diseases such as the one he describes are so difficult to tackle. That is why we need focus on them and extra funding and research, and I will ensure that he gets a full response.

What a wonderful story. I know that raising that issue in business questions helped the hon. Gentleman to secure that funding and that sponsorship, so that Lucas could go to the US Open and compete. What fantastic news that he won his quarter-final and will now be in the semi-finals. I join the hon. Gentleman in thanking the Lawn Tennis Association, easyJet and all those who have made it possible.